Luis Scola Ready to Embrace Bench Role With the Pacers

Newly acquired Pacer Luis Scola’s job will be to back up David West next season, and even though he prefers to start (like just about everyone else in the NBA), Scola realizes this is a great chance for him to play for a title. Per USA Today: “Scola will be playing for a team in a cold-weather city for the first time and joked that his first reaction was that he was going to have to buy a coat and a new wardrobe. One of his first tweets following the trade included ‘Necesito abrigo.’ Translation: I need a coat. There was some sadness, too. ‘I’ve got four kids (ages 7 and younger) and a family,’ he said. ‘The moving part is really hard and that was my first reaction, ‘Oh, my God. We’ve got to go through that again.’ But he also realizes he’s joining one of the NBA’s best teams. The Pacers are hoping moves to upgrade their bench — including the addition of Scola — this summer will be enough to push them to an NBA title. ‘I’m 32 years old,’ Scola said. ‘I don’t know how many more years I’m going to play. We all know the older we are, the more you know, and we all know it’s about winning. People won’t care about all the numbers you have if you play on a bad team. It’s all about winning. I know that. The older I am, the stronger I believe that.’ Scola will have to make one major adjustment. He’s been a starter in 429 of his 487 NBA games. He came off the bench 15 times last season in Phoenix, the first time he had come off the bench since his rookie season of 2007-08. But for the Pacers, he’s being counted on to back up David West. ‘It’s not my choice, but I am going to embrace my role,’ he said. ‘It’s a different role, but I think we’ve got a bunch of new players that can make a difference in the role they play. I will try to be one of those players.'”